UN Authority Figures

UN Women Executive Board: The Democratic Republic of Congo

Photo: United Nations troops on patrol in DC Congo.
Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped more than 500 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a U.N. peacekeepers' base in an eastern Congo.(NeonTommy.COM)

Mission of the UN Women:
"The main roles of UN Women are: To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms; To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society; To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress." (UN Women web-site)

The Democratic Republic of Congo Record on Women's rights:
"...[R]ape was common throughout the country and especially pervasive in conflict areas in the east. [M]ore than 1,100 women and girls were raped each month...Government security forces, armed groups, and civilians perpetrated widespread and sometimes mass rape against women and girls...[M]embers of armed groups, the FARDC [Congolese Armed Forces], and the police were responsible for 81 percent of all reported cases of sexual violence in conflict zones...It was common for family members to pressure a rape victim to keep quiet...to safeguard the reputations of the victim and her family...After a sexual assault, many young women and girls were often labeled as unsuitable for marriage and married women were frequently abandoned by their husbands.
Some families forced rape victims to marry the men who raped them or to forego prosecution in exchange for money or goods from the rapist." (US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2009, DRC)